ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion Locomotive pictures

All Electricrailfans;-


[should be]
http://alfredbarten.com/oldmaud3.html

Want more 'leccy trains? Watch this space!

Alan

edit web address.

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 01-13-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 01-13-2006).]

It's no doubt much bigger, but that loco reminds me of the old Austrian 1670, which is about the same age.
That was a nice loco... 15kV 16 2/3 Hz overhead power, transformer with various taps for speed control and auxiliary power, huge solid contactors...

At the company we don't lock out the pantograph, but we switch off, lock out and ground the catenary of the track with the car we're working on. All ladders being used are grounded _and_ ground the catenary separately too. That seems to be a fairly safe arrangement.

I once had the fun of painting the roof of a historic loco for example.

www.railfaneurope.net is quite a nice site with pictures.

Where I work we run light rail trains that are overhead fed and heavy rail subway trains that are 3rd rail fed, and all of it runs on 750VDC. I take it by reading the posts above that this is unusual. These were all built within the last 15 years, most of it within the last 10. We have traction power stations every 2 to 3 miles or so.

Radar

Thanks for that link Texas Ranger

More from Alan:



Click for larger image

"An early 'Swiss Federal Railways' 4-6-2 electric loco., date unknown, 1920? 15000 volts single phase ac, overhead supply at 16.66 hertz. Speed 56mph with 480 tons drawbar pull, with 2 series-compensated motors by Derlikon. Note the use of connecting rods on the six driven wheels, as in steam practice, and no money wasted on frivolities like covers!

DC series motors are practically perfect for traction in every respect, and were used extensively by the London Underground [600vdc] & in tramwork. Transmission of power over any great distance favored ac motors. Even when the voltage was pumped up to 1500vdc [live rail], or 3000vdc [overhead], ac offered lower overall asset compexity and capital/running costs over long distance routes, even with the poor starting performance. Polyphase ac traction was not practical until solid state switching devices became available, due to pantograph complexity. All motor design for traction is dominated by the need for variable speed, so synchronous motors are out. AC motors are, in fact, not wholly suitable for traction conditions- even 3-phase induction motors are primarily a constant speed type. The single phase motors used were therefore usually of the dc commutator type, with brushes on every pole and fitted with interpoles.

Now, simple dc motors [with field windings] rotate in the same direction, whichever way they happen to be connected to the dc system, [ field and armature currents are simultaneously reversed]. If a series dc type motor be supplied with ac of low periodicity, say 15-25 hz, it will duly operate in the same direction. This is why low hz was required. Field and armature irons must be laminated, and air gaps kept as small as possible to minimise leakage, which [in the ac case] affects the power factor. Even so, a motor like this will have a poor power-factor, and the general methods used to improve performance were; to have resistance strips between armature conductors and commutator segments; to introduce commutating and compensating windings; by distributed series windings carried in slots on the inner perifery of the stator; to run with a weaker field than in dc practice; and just to make the motors bigger! Even with all this refinement, starting vibration, noise and pulsation of torque was still inferior to dc."

-------------------------------------------



Click for larger image

"A typical early 600vdc electric locomotive used on certain sections of the London Underground. This is # 12, so it came from the second batch of locos built by The British Westinghouse Company Ltd, and was photographed some time after 1905. #1 thro' #10 were of similar general form - Ordered 1904, delivered 1905, weight 50 tons, 4 x 200 hp motors. Bodies and bogies by Metropolotan Amalgamated of Birmingham England, and electrical equipment by British Westinghouse. This type all seem to have all been scrapped in 1922, when they were replaced by 'Metropolitan Vickers' locos. "

-Alan



[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-14-2006).]

No, 750V DC is not at all uncommon for subway and light rail systems. In fact almost all subway systems of the world operate on 600-1500V DC either 3rd rail or overhead.

Long-distance lines in Austria never used anything but high-voltage AC.

I have read in an old railway book that after the second world war trials were done in Northern Italy with 3Ø power at 3000 Volts AC.
There were 2 overhead catenary wires, and the rails were the 3rd phase and were grounded. This system was used for quite a few years after it was abandoned and 3000 Volts DC was adopted to harmonise with the rest of Italy which uses 3000 V dc.

It must have been an absolute nightmare at points to avoid shorting out the overhead supply. 2 pantographs were used for power collection.
Also a limited section of speeds were available by changing pole pairs over.

I see if I can find the book or get some more info on gooogle.

Another pic from Alan:



Click for larger image

"This is a Metropolitan Railway Underground loco, #8 of the first batch, taken I think at Neasden Sheds[?]. This must be well after the construction date of '05, as she looks well used. Is that worker about to do a pas de deux?! Sorry about the quality of the photo, it's got pretty creased." -Alan

Thanks to RODALCO for the following photo of a Northern Italian railways 3 phase locomotive.




Click for full-size image




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 01-18-2006).]

Attempts like this have been made in several European countries around 1900, but this is the only one I ever saw a clear picture of, and probably the only one that has been in service for such a long period of time.
Having two pantographs up is usually avoided here out of fear the power line might start to oscillate and damage the second pantograph.

Traction voltages are a nightmare around Europe... I think anything from 500-3000V DC and 1500V-25000V AC at 16 2/3 and 50 Hz are currently used. Take Austria alone... Vienna streetcar (tram) is 650V DC overhead supply. Vienna Subway is 750V DC 3rd rail (4 lines) or overhead (1 line). Suburban light rail to Baden (streetcar-like local railway) is inside Vienna on 650V tram supply, for a short section of track on 750V subway and on it's own track outside Vienna on 950V DC. The cars are quite lame inside Vienna...
Long-distance service is solely 15000V @16.7 Hz (nominal, actually it's a rounded 16 2/3 Hz), whereas smaller local lines often operate on 1200 or 1500 V DC overhead. German and Swiss long distance are the same as Austria (not sure about Switzerland), so that's not such a big problem. Hungary is 25000V 50 Hz though, System #2. Italy is 1500 or 3000V DC. Don't know about Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The old Vienna metro (until 1983) had trains of up to nine short 2-axle cars, multi-unit operation with three motorcars! Built in 154-1961, using most of the mechanical parts from the old 1925 cars, boosting a maximum speed of 40km per hour...